Those who remember the musical "Jekyll & Hyde" the first time around might well greet the news that it's being revived for Broadway with a question: Why? Sweet mercy, why?

This awkward retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novella has been tricked out in trendy steampunk finery for its pre-Broadway run at the Pantages Theatre, and it features two powerhouse voices in the lead roles: "American Idol" star Constantine Maroulis as the schizoid title character(s) and golden-voiced R&B singer Deborah Cox as Lucy Harris, the fallen woman who attracts both sides of the conflicted doctor's split personality.

But no matter how you truss it up, a turkey is still a turkey. There's a good reason why Leslie Bricusse and Frank Wildhorn's amped-up tale travelled around the country forever before going to Broadway: it's road-show fodder.

When it finally got to New York, seven long years after its 1990 debut at Houston's Alley Theatre, "Jekyll & Hyde" stayed for a while – 1,543 performances from 1997 to 2001 – but it was never respected. It garnered poor reviews and ended up losing $1.5 million.

Director Jeff Calhoun, a miracle worker who can turn sow's ears into silk purses ("Bonnie & Clyde" and "Newsies" come to mind), has been brought aboard to breathe some fresh life into the mad doctor, but there's only so much he can do. Loud, hyper-emotional and as subtle as an anvil dropped on your noggin, "Jekyll & Hyde" is a musical perfectly tailored to the "American Idol" set.

Many of its songs are defiant anthems such as "This is the Moment," which Jekyll delivers as he's about to ignore everyone's advice and inject himself with his experimental drug, or Lucy's "A New Life," an ill-timed celebration of her pending escape from prostitution. On Wednesday they were greeted with whoops of approval from Maroulis' and Cox's adoring fans.

The tale begins with Jekyll, a brilliant young London research scientist, lamenting his father's madness. (The poor old codger is strapped to a giant, tilt-up lab table. No wonder he's bonkers.) Motivated by his dad's disease, Jekyll wants to try a new drug that would separate and suppress a man's evil side. Jekyll presents a research proposal to the Board of Governors of St. Jude's Hospital, but they turn him down with cries of "sacrilege, lunacy, blasphemy, heresy!" Fortunately, they're all heartless hypocrites and fools, so when Jekyll's alter ego picks them off one by one it seems like a succession of "Dexter" moments.

That doppelganger, Mr. Edward Hyde, gets the good doctor into a bad situation. From the moment he administers the drug, in a lab that would have made Dr. Frankenstein green with envy, we know things aren't going to turn out well for Jekyll. Hyde, like all villains, is hard to control. Jekyll struggles valiantly but ultimately unsuccessfully to bring him to heel. In the meantime, the bodies pile up and the headlines in the papers get progressively more lurid.

Needless to say, Jekyll's private battles aren't healthy for his relationship with his bride-to-be, sweet Emma Carew (spunky, sure-voiced Teal Wicks) or his best friend, lawyer John Utterson (Laird Mackintosh, the picture of British rectitude). If Jekyll had listened to John's warnings and avoided that brothel in Camden Town for his bachelor party, he never would have met poor Lucy. But then scenic and costume designer Tobin Ost couldn't have indulged in the production's raunchiest set, which looks like a cluttered storeroom for Tim Burton's characters and props.

If you can tolerate the noise, bombast and wall-to-wall cleavage, there's some terrific singing and brave acting in this production.

Maroulis owns a rock star voice, and when it's unleashed he's a wonder to behold. He even makes a few truly ridiculous moments almost work. "Confrontation," a singing smackdown between Jekyll and Hyde, is potentially giggle-inducing, but Maroulis is so passionately committed to the moment that he holds us in thrall.

Maroulis, sporting an unruly head of hair that most women would kill for, gets into trouble when quiet craft is needed. He's not good at ratcheting his singing voice down; technical problems appear. His Jekyll mannerisms are superficial. And someone needs to call the accent doctor immediately. Maroulis has a bad case of where's-he-from-itis.

Cox will give you chills. Her voice is lustrous, strong, full of dynamic emotional power and smoldering sexuality; as a musical-theater performer, she's a natural. Each of Lucy's solos is an opportunity for Cox to top herself: "Sympathy, Tenderness," "Someone Like You," "A New Life." And she does, every time. I'd love to hear her sing Brecht/Weill.

These two performances are the reasons to see "Jekyll & Hyde." As for the rest – well, you can marvel as you watch that they've now had 23 years to work out the kinks. Some things are unfixable.

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